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Jane   Lathrop   Stanford 
By- 
David    Starr  Jordan 


UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA 
AT   LOS  ANGELES 


JANE  LATHEOP  STANFORD 


By  Pkbsident  DAVID  STARR  JORDAN 


Keprinted  from  the  Poptjlak  Science  Monthly,  August,  1909. 


[Reprinted  from  The  Popular  Science  Monthly,  August,  1909.] 


JANE  LATHROP   STANFORD 
A  Eulogy1 

Bx  President  DAVID  STARR  JORDAN 

STANFORD   UNIVERSITY 

I  AM  to  tell  you  to-day  the  story  of  a  noble  life,  of  one  of  the  bravest, 
wisest,  most  patient,  most  courageous  and  most  devout  of  all  the 
women  who  have  ever  lived.  I  want  to  give  to  those  of  the  university 
to  whom  its  founders  are  but  a  memory  some  lasting  picture  of  the 
woman  who  saved  the  university,  which  she  and  her  honored  husband 
founded  in  faith  and  hope,  and  who  thus  made  possible  the  education 
you  are  receiving.  I  want  to  make  my  story  as  impersonal  as  I  can, 
as  though  I  spoke  not  for  myself  but  for  all  of  you,  men  and  women  of 
Stanford,  with  all  gratitude  towards  the  many  who  have  helped  in  the 
great  work,  and  with  all  charity  towards  those  whose  interests  or  whose 
conscientious  convictions  ranged  them  on  the  other  side.  If  I  am  suc- 
cessful, you  will  see  more  clearly  than  ever  before  the  lone,  sad  figure  of 
the  mother  of  the  university,  strong  in  her  trust  in  God  and  in  her 
loyalty  to  her  husband's  purposes,  happy  only  in  the  belief  that  in 
carrying  out  her  husband's  plans  for  training  the  youth  of  California 
in  virtue  and  usefulness  she  was  acting  the  part  to  which  she  was  as- 
signed. 

We  have  often  said  that  Stanford  University  belongs  to  the  Stan- 
ford students.  It  was  the  free  gift  of  the  founders,  man  and  woman 
that  were,  to  the  students,  the  men  and  women  that  were  to  be.  It  is 
your  university,  yours  and  yours  only,  as  once  it  was  theirs. 

But  we  must  not  interpret  this  gift  too  narrowly.  It  is  not  yours, 
you  students  of  to-day,  to  have  or  to  hold  in  any  exclusive  way.  The 
university  belongs  to  all  the  students,  those  who  have  been  here,  some 
ten  thousand  in  all,  those  who  are  here  to-day,  seventeen  hundred  more 
or  less,  and  those  who  are  to  come.  Before  these  we  count  as  nothing,  for 
the  students  to  come  will  number  for  each  century  about  a  hundred 
thousand.  And  there  are  many  of  these  centuries,  for  the  world  is  still 
very  young,  and  a  university  once  firmly  rooted  is  as  nearly  eternal  as 
human  civilization  itself  can  be.  The  university  stands  for  the  highest 
thought  and  wisest  action  possible  for  man,  and  the  need  of  a  univer- 
sity must  endure  so  long  as  man  exists ;  and  that  will  be  for  a  very  long 
time.  Man  is  bounded  by  the  limits  of  space,  but  the  race  once  estab- 
lished on  this  planet  of  ours,  we  see  no  limit  of  time,  no  prospect  of  a 

1  Founder's  Day  address  at  Stanford  University,  March  9,  1909. 


i58  THE   POPULAR   SCIENCE   MONTHLY 

twilight  <>f  gods  in  which  the  darkness  Bhall  Call  on  the  world  because 
universities  are  no  longer  Deeded.  The  center  of  gravity  of  Stanford 
University,  of  its  student  body,  and  of  its  influence  on  civilization,  is 
hundreds  of  years,  thousands  of  years  ahead. 

To  the  students  of  to-day,  the  professors  of  to-day,  and  the  trustees 
of  to-day,  the  university  to-day  belongs,  hut  not  as  a  personal  posses- 
sion :  only  as  a  sacred  trust.  It  is  our  first  duty  to  see  that  its  good 
name  and  its  good  work  arc  kept  untarnished  and  unimpaired.  It  is  for 
the  students  to  see  that  no  custom  of  idleness  or  of  dissipation, no  fashion 
of  cynicism  or  of  disloyalty  ever  becomes  hardened  into  a  tradition  at 
Stanford  University.  It  is  for  the  professors  to  strengthen  them  in 
this  decision,  and  to  point  out  the  best  that  men  have  ever  thought  or 
done,  to  lead  the  way  to  gentle  breeding  and  the  enthusiasm  of  noble 
thought.  Now,  as  ever,  "the  university  must  welcome  every  ray  of 
varied  genius  to  its  hospitable  halls,"  that  their  combined  influences 
may  "  set  the  heart  of  the  youth  in  flame."  It  is  for  the  Board  of 
Trustees  and  for  the  university  executive  to  act  as  the  balance  wheel, 
guarding  jealously  the  funds  of  the  institution,  that  the  generous  pres- 
ent may  not  starve  the  future,  and  to  see  that  no  neglect  or  perversity  of 
student  or  teacher  shall  work  any  permanent  harm  to  the  university 
whole.  For  the  university  must  ever  be  infinitely  greater  than  the  sum 
of  all  its  parts.  For  its  largest  part  is  never  present  for  our  measure- 
ment, and  this  part  we  can  not  measure  is  the  sum  of  all  its  future  in- 
fluence. 

This  university  was  founded  on  love  in  a  sense  which  is  true  of  no 
other.  Its  corner-stone  was  love — love  of  a  boy  extended  to  the  love 
of  the  children  of  humanity.  It  was  continued  through  love — the  love 
of  a  noble  woman  for  her  husband ;  the  faith  of  both  in  love's  ideals — 
and  as  an  embodiment  of  the  power  of  love  Stanford  University  stands 
to-day. 

It  is  fitting  that  these  statements  should  not  stand  as  mere  words. 
I  wish  that  in  your  hearts  they  may  become  realities.  Xot  many  of  you 
as  students  have  seen  Mrs.  Stanford.  The  last  of  the  freshmen  classes 
which  she  knew  shall  graduate  as  seniors  a  few  weeks  hence.  None  of 
you  have  known  Leland  Stanford,  broad-minded,  stout-hearted,  shrewd, 
kindly,  and  full  of  hope,  a  man  of  action  ripened  into  a  philosopher. 
Our  university  has  now  reached  its  eighteenth  year.  During  the  first 
two  years  of  its  history,  it  was  the  hopeful  experiment  of  Leland  Stan- 
ford. The  next  six  years  its  story  was  that  of  the  heart  throbs  of  Jane 
Lathrop  Stanford,  and  the  ten  years  following,  with  all  their  vicissi- 
tudes, have  been  years  of  calmness  and  certainty,  for  the  final  outcome 
is  no  longer  open  to  question. 

It  is  my  purpose  this  evening  to  tell  a  little  of  the  story  of  the  six 
dark  years,  the  years  from  eighteen  ninety-three  to  eighteen  ninety- 
nine,  those  days  in  which  the  future  of  a  university  hung  by  a  single 


JANE  LATHROP  STANFORD  159 

.  thread,  but  that  thread  the  greatest  thing  in  the  world,  the  love  of  a 
good  woman.  If  for  an  instant  in  all  these  years  this  good  woman 
had  wavered  in  her  purposes,  if  for  a  moment  she  had  yielded  to  fear  or 
even  to  the  pressure  of  worldly  wisdom,  you  and  I  would  not  have  been 
here  to-day.  The  strain,  the  agony,  was  all  hers,  and  hers  the  final  vic- 
tory. And  so  any  account  of  these  years  must  take  the  form  of  eulogy. 
Eulogy,  in  its  old  Greek  meaning  is  speaking  well,  and  my  every  word 
to-day  must  be  a  word  of  praise.  It  is  proper,  too,  that  I  should  speak 
these  words,  and  even  that  I  should  give  this  history  from  my  own 
standpoint,  because  there  were  few  besides  myself  who  knew  the  facts 
in  those  days.  Most  of  these  facts  even  it  is  well  for  all  of  us  to  for- 
get. For  the  rest,  the  facts  in  issue  will  appear  only  as  needed  for  the 
background,  before  which  we  may  see  the  figure  of  Mrs.  Stanford. 

I  first  saw  the  Governor  and  Mrs.  Stanford  at  Bloomington,  Indi- 
ana, in  March,  1891.  At  that  time,  Governor  Stanford,  under  the 
advice  of  Andrew  D.  "White,  the  President  of  Cornell,  asked  me  to  come 
to  California  to  take  charge  of  the  new  institution  which  he  was  soon 
to  open.  He  told  me  the  story  of  their  son,  of  their  buried  hopes,  of 
their  days  and  nights  of  sorrow,  and  of  how  he  had  once  awakened 
from  a  troubled  night  with  these  words  on  his  lips :  "  The  children  of 
California  shall  be  my  children."  He  told  me  the  extent  of  his  prop- 
erty and  of  his  purposes  in  its  use.  He  hoped  to  build  a  university  of 
the  highest  order,  one  which  should  give  the  best  of  teaching  in  all  its 
departments,  one  which  should  be  the  center  of  invention  and  research, 

\  giving  to  each  student  the  secret  of  success  in  life.     No  cost  was  to 

I  be  spared,  no  pains  to  be  avoided,  in  bringing  this  university  to  the 

£  highest  possible  effectiveness. 

3         In  all  this  Mrs.  Stanford  was  most  deeply  interested,  supporting  his 

I  purposes,  guarding  his  strength,  alert  at  every  point,  and  always  in  the 

E  fullest  sympathy. 

Mr.  Stanford  explained  that  thus  far  only  buildings  and  land  had 
been  given,  but  that  practically  the  whole  of  the  common  estate  would 
go  in  time  to  the  university,  when  the  founders  had  passed  away.  If 
he  should  himself  survive,  the  gift  would  be  his  and  hers  jointly,  though 
the  final  giving  would  be  left  to  him.  If  the  wife  should  survive,  the 
property  would  be  hers,  and  in  her  hands  would  lie  the  final  joy  of 
giving.  Mr.  Stanford  gave  his  reason  for  not  turning  over  the  prop- 
erty at  once,  for  this  might  leave  his  wife  no  controlling  part  in  the 
future.  It  was  not  his  wish  that  she  should  sit  idly  by  while  others 
should  create  the  university.  So  long  as  she  lived,  it  was  his  wish  that 
the  building  of  the  university  should  be  her  work. 

This  attitude  of  chivalry  in  all  this  needs  this  word  of  explanation, 
for  it  shaped  the  whole  future  history  of  the  university  endowment.  It 
was  the  source  of  some  of  the  embarrassments  which  followed,  and  per- 
haps as  well  of  the  final  success. 

302382 


i6o  THE    POPULAR   .-('IIWCE   MONTHLY 

The  university  was  opened  on  the  first  day  of  October,  1891,  a  clear, 
bright,  golden,  California  day,  typical  of  Califonii;i  October,  ami  full 
of  good  omen,  as  all  days  in  California  are  likely  to  be.  There  were 
(tn  the  opening  day  165  Btudents,  with  only  15  Instructors,  and  the  first 

duly  of  the  president  was  to  telegraph  for  more  teachers,  laying  tribute 
on  many  institutions  in  the  easi  and  in  the  west. 

Two  years  followed,  with  their  varied  adventures,  which  I  need  not 
relate  to-day.  It  was  on  the  twenty-second  of  June,  1893,  that  the 
university  community  was  startled  by  the  sudden  death  of  Leland 
Stanford. 

It  is  not  my  purpose  now  to  praise  the  founder  of  the  university. 
One  single  incident  at  his  funeral  is  firmly  fixed  in  my  memory.  The 
clergyman,  Horatio  Stebbins,  in  his  stately  fashion  told  a  story  of  the 
Greeks  doing  honor  to  a  dead  hero;  then,  turning  to  the  pall-bearers, 
stalwart  railway  men,  he  said:  "Gentle  up  your  strength  a  little,  for 
'tis  a  man  ye  bear."  A  man,  in  all  high  senses,  in  that  noblest  of  words, 
a  man !  was  Leland  Stanford. 

After  the  founder's  death,  the  estate  fell  into  the  hands  of  the 
courts.  The  will  was  in  probate,  the  debts  of  the  estate  had  to  be  paid, 
the  various  ramifications  of  business  had  to  be  disentangled,  and  mean- 
while came  on  the  fierce  panic  of  1893.  All  university  matters  stopped 
for  the  summer.  Salaries  could  not  be  paid  until  it  was  found  out  by 
the  courts  by  whom  and  to  whom  salaries  were  due.  All  incomes 
from  business  ceased.  There  was  no  such  thing  as  income  visible  to 
any  one,  least  of  all  to  the  great  corporations. 

After  Governor  Stanford's  death,  Mrs.  Stanford  kept  to  her  rooms 
for  a  week  or  two.  She  had  much  to  plan  and  much  to  consider. 
From  every  point  of  view  of  worldly  wisdom,  it  was  best  to  close  the 
university  until  the  estate  was  settled  and  in  her  hands,  its  debts  paid 
and  the  panic  over.  Her  own  fortune  was  in  the  estate  itself.  Outside 
of  her  jewels,  she  had  practically  nothing  of  her  own  save  the  com- 
munity estate,  and  this  could  not  be  hers  until  the  payment  of  all 
debts  and  legacies  had  been  completed.  These  debts  and  legacies 
amounted  as  a  whole  to  eight  millions  of  dollars.  In  normal  times, 
there  was  hardly  money  enough  in  California  to  pay  this  amount:  but 
these  were  not  normal  times,  and  there  was  no  money  in  California  to 
pay  anything. 

After  these  two  weeks,  Mrs.  Stanford  called  me  to  her  house  to  sav 
that  the  die  was  east.  She  was  going  ahead  with  the  university.  She 
would  let  us  have  whatever  money  she  could  get.  We  must  come  down 
to  bed  rock  on  expenses,  but  with  the  help  of  the  Lord  and  the  memory 
of  her  husband,  the  university  would  go  ahead  and  fulfil  its  mission. 

It  was  no  easy  task  to  do  this,  as  one  incident  will  show.  There 
could  be  no  regularity  in  the  payment  of  salaries.  In  the  eyes  of  the 
law  the  university  professors  were  Mrs.  Stanford's  personal  servants. 


JANE  LATHROP  STANFORD  161 

'As  such,  it  was  finally  arranged  that  they  receive  a  special  allowance 
from  the  estate.  This  allowance  as  household  servants  paid  their  sal- 
aries, and  a  registration  tax  of  twenty  dollars  per  year  on  each  student 
had  to  cover  all  other  expenses.  But  these  two  sources  of  income  did 
not  come  at  once,  and  the  great  farms  run  as  experiment  stations  were 
centers  of  loss  and  not  of  income. 

A  single  incident  will  make  this  condition  vivid. 

At  one  time  in  August,  1893,  Mrs.  Stanford  received  from  Judge 
Coffey's  court  the  sum  of  $500  to  be  paid  to  her  household  servants. 
It  was  paid  in  a  bag  of  twenty-five  twenty  dollar  gold  pieces.  Mrs. 
Stanford  called  me  -in  and  said  her  household  servants  could  wait ; 
there  might  be  some  professors  in  need,  and  I  might  divide  the  money 
among  them.  I  put  the  money  under  my  pillow,  and  did  not  sleep 
that  night.  Money  was  no  common  thing  with  us  then.  Next  morn- 
ing, on  Sunday,  I  set  out  to  give  ten  professors  fifty  dollars  apiece.  I 
found  not  one  who  could  give  change  for  a  twenty  dollar  gold  piece,  and 
so  I  made  it  forty  dollars  and  sixty  dollars. 

The  same  afternoon  after  I  had  gone  the  rounds  $13,000  was  brought 
down  from  the  city  for  us  other  household  servants.  This  sum  was  dis- 
tributed, and  then  Mrs.  Stanford  sent  word  that  as  we  had  some  money 
now  perhaps  we  could  spare  her  the  $500.  I  drew  a  check  for  the  sum 
against  a  long-vanished  bank  account,  and  covered  the  amount  in  the 
morning  with  the  aid  of  some  of  my  associates. 

This  incident  again  will  explain  why  for  six  years  the  professors- 
were  paid  by  personal  checks  of  the  president,  and  why  these  were  not 
always  issued  regularly,  nor  for  the  full  amounts.  "We  were  all  strug- 
gling together  to  be  able  to  issue  them  at  all.  There  was  no  certainty 
ahead  of  us.  Most  of  the  property  was  of  such  a  character  that  it 
could  not  be  divided,  but  must  go  in  blocks  of  millions,  if  it  went  at  all, 
and  no  one  with  millions  at  his  disposal  seemed  inclined  to  invest  it 
anywhere.  The  estate  held  a  one  fourth  interest  in  the  Southern  Pa- 
cific System,  and  of  all  its  many  ramifications.  Kept  together,  it  could 
maintain  itself,  but  if  any  division  were  made  the  smaller  part  might  be 
subject  to  the  process  known  as  "  freezing  out." 

I  pass  by  many  minor  incidents  of  struggle  and  economy.  The 
farms  had  to  be  abruptly  closed,  and  then  to  be  made  to  yield  an  in- 
come. This  required  wise  management  and  rigid  economy  at  the  same 
time,  but  for  all  this  Mrs.  Stanford  proved  adequate.  She  learned  her 
lessons  as  she  went  along,  and  came  to  take  a  wholesome  pleasure  in 
the  Spartan  simplicity  of  her  life.  If  all  else  failed,  there  were  the 
jewels  to  fall  back  upon;  and  she  steadily  refused  to  consider  the 
advice  (almost  unanimous)  of  her  counsel  to  close  the  university  or 
most  of  its  departments  until  some  more  favorable  time.  In  1895  she 
invited  the  pioneer  class,  then  graduating,  to  a  reception  in  her  city 
home,  one  reason  being  that  it  was  the  last  class  that  could  ever  gradu- 


i6a  THE   POPULAR   SCIENCE   MONTHLY 

ate.  We  had  nothing  to  run  on,  save  the  precarious  servant  allow- 
ance, then  fixed  at  $12,500  peT  month,  and  liable  to  be  cui  to  nothing 
ni  any  day.  Our  expenses  for  isii:;  bad  been  nearly  $18,000  per 
month.  Sometimes  we  could  sell  a  few  horses  from  the  stock  farm,  but 
it  was  never  clear  that  the  stock  farm  belonged  to  the  university  and 
not  to  the  Stanford  estate,  and  every  dollar  we  gained  this  way  piled 
up  the  possibilities  of  litigation.  All  these  days  were  brightened  by 
the  steady  support  of  her  friends  and  advisers,  Samuel  F.  Leib,  Timothy 
ITopkins  and  Russell  Wilson.  Mr.  Hopkins  furnished  the  Library  of 
Biology  and  paid  unasked  many  minor  expenses,  his  left  hand  not 
taking  receipts  for  what  his  right  hand  was  doing.  No  one  can  tell 
how  much  the  university  owes  to  these  men,  who  in  the  darkest  days 
planned  to  make  the  future  possible.  Very  much  too  the  university 
owed  to  the  fraternal  devotion  of  Mrs.  Stanford's  brother,  Mr.  Charles 
G.  Lathrop,  who  cared  for  with  sympathetic  hand  the  scanty  receipts 
and  scanty  fragments  of  these  harassed  days.  The  warm  sympathy 
of  Thomas  Welton  Stanford  came  from  across  the  seas.  His  gift  of 
the  Library  Building  came  as  a  shadow  of  a  great  rock  in  a  weary  land. 

At  last,  adjustment  of  one  kind  after  another  being  made,  there 
•was  a  glimpse  of  daylight,  when  we  were  thrust  without  warning  into 
still  darker  night. 

The  government  suit  for  fifteen  millions  wras  brought  for  the  pur- 
pose of  tying  up  everything  in  the  Stanford  estate  until  the  debts  of 
the  Central  Pacific  Railway  were  paid.  It  was  not  claimed  that  the 
university  owed  anything,  or  that  the  Stanford  estate  owed  anything, 
or  that  the  railway  owed  anything,  on  which  payment  was  due,  and  as  a 
matter  of  fact  the  Southern  Pacific  Company  paid  in  full  every  dollar 
it  owed  to  the  government  as  soon  as  it  became  due,  and  with  full  in- 
terest. There  was  never  any  reason  to  suppose  that  it  would  not  do  so, 
and  never  any  reason  to  suppose  that  it  could  not  afford  to  pay  this 
debt,  for  the  power  to  control  the  line  from  Ogden  to  San  Francisco, 
called  the  Central  Pacific,  was  in  itself  an  enormous  asset,  worth  the 
value  of  this  debt.  Failure  to  pay  this  debt  would  have  meant  loss  of 
control  of  the  most  valuable  single  factor  in  the  great  railroad  system. 

The  claim  of  the  United  States  was  secured  by  a  second  mortgage 
on  the  Central  Pacific.  It  was  supposed  that  it  would  be  sold  to  satisfy 
the  first  mortgage,  and  that  it  would  realize  no  more  than  this  sum, 
leaving,  as  a  railway  manager  cynically  expressed  it,  nothing  but  "  two 
streaks  of  rust  and  the  right  of  way."  The  government  proposed,  by 
a  sort  of  injunction,  to  hold  up  the  Stanford  property,  which  would 
then  be  seized,  in  case  the  Southern  Pacific  Railway  system  should  at 
some  future  time  be  found  in  debt.  There  was  no  warrant  in  law  or 
in  good  policy  foT  this  suit.  One  United  States  judge  spoke  of  it  as 
"  the  crime  of  the  century.*''     It  is  not  easy  to  work  out  the  motives, 


JANE  LATHROP  STANFORD  163 

political  or  personal  or  what  not,  which  inspired  it.  Fortunately,  just 
now  it  makes  no  difference. 

The  hardest  feature  of  the  matter  lay  in  the  attitude  of  those 
jointly  interested  in  the  ownership  of  the  Southern  Pacific  System. 
These  men  declined  to  give  any  assistance  in  the  struggle  for  justice 
and  for  the  endowment  of  the  university.  All  were  financially  con- 
cerned in  the  final  outcome,  but  they  left  her  to  make  the  fight  alone 
and  at  her  own  cost. 

It  should  be  said  that  none  of  the  present  owners  or  managers  of 
the  Southern  Pacific  were  in  any  way  concerned  in  this  matter.  It  is 
also  fair  to  say  that  this  attitude  was  only  the  business  man's  point  of 
view.  It  seemed  impossible  to  save  the  estate  and  the  university  to- 
gether. All  receipts  of  the  railroads  (there  were  no  profits)  were 
needed  to  continue  its  operations,  and  the  outlays  of  the  university 
seemed  to  the  other  owners  of  the  railway  system  to  involve  a  danger- 
ous policy.  On  the  other  hand,  to  Mrs.  Stanford  the  estate  existed 
solely  for  the  benefit  of  the  university.  To  save  the  estate  on  these 
terms  was  to  her  like  throwing  over  the  passengers  to  lighten  the  ship. 
And  as  matters  turned  out,  the  university,  the  estate  and  the  railway 
were  all  saved  alike. 

Perhaps  we  can  get  at  the  nature  of  this  suit  from  a  couple  of  let- 
ters written  at  the  time.  I  find  on  our  files  a  letter  sent  in  November, 
1894,  to  President  Eliot  of  Harvard.     In  this  letter  I  said : 

I  recognize  of  course  that  public  sentiment  can  not  be  formed  without  a 
basis  of  knowledge.  The  peculiar  conditions  in  which  this  university  finds  itself 
are  not  easily  stated  to  the  public.  There  are  internal  reasons  why  we  can  not 
well  take  the  country  into  confidence.  Some  of  these  reasons  are  connected  with 
the  relations  of  the  Stanford  heirs.  Others  arise  from  our  relations  to  our 
future  partner,  in  whose  power  we  are,  until  the  government  suit  is  disposed  of, 
that  is,  until  the  settlement  of  the  estate. 

The  grounds  of  the  government  suit,  in  brief,  are  these.  The  Central  Pacific 
Railroad  was  regarded  as  an  impossibility  by  most  of  the  people  of  California. 
Its  builders  exhausted  their  funds  and  their  credit  and  tried  in  vain  to  get  help 
from  every  quarter,  even  after  receiving  large  donations  of  land  then  worthless1. 
The  U.  S.  government  came  to  their  aid,  whether  wisely  or  not,  ...  it  does  not 
matter  at  present.  The  road  when  finished  bore  a  first  mortgage,  covering  all 
that  it  is  now  worth.  The  government  took  a  second  mortgage  upon  it  as 
security  for  the  payment  of  the  debt  due  for  the  bonds  it  had  advanced  in  aid 
of  the  corporation.  .  .  . 

There  is  a  law  in  California,  by  which  the  original  stockholders  in  a  cor- 
poration are  personally  liable  for  its  debts,  if  suit  be  begun  within  three  years 
after  the  organization  of  the  corporation.  This  law  was  intended  to  check 
"  wild-cat "  speculations. 

It  is  claimed  that  under  this  law  the  estates  of  Stanford  and  Huntington 
are  still  liable  for  the  amount  of  the  second  mortgage,  to  come  due  in  a  few 
years.  It  is  claimed  that  the  three-years'  limitation  does  not  hold  against  the 
government.  This  question  of  liability  had  not  been  raised  when  the  estates  of 
the  two  remaining  partners  were  distributed,  and  its  enforcement  would  be 
possible  as  against  the  Stanford  estate  alone,  as  Mr.  Huntington,  being  alive, 


[64  THE    I'OI'I  L.\i:    SCIENCE   MnSTIlLY 

can  withdraw  his  Interest!  to  Mexico,  should  the  rail  againsl  .Mr.  Stanford  be 
successful.  Meanwhile,  by  the  way,  the  question  Is  tested  for  him  al  1 1 » . -  expense 
of  the  Stanford  estate,  the  railroad  Interests  ><i  which  are  In  bis  hands  as 
president  of  the  road.  .  .  . 

ii  is  believed  by  :ill  jurists  whom  we  have  consulted,  that  the  government 
has  no  case.     The  limitation  of  three  yean  being  an  Integral  part  of  th<-  -■ 
in  question,  must  hold  againsl  the  governmenl  as  againsl  others.    Furthermore, 
the  aid  extended  by  the  government  was  ool  a  debl   Incurred  In  business  of  the 
corporation. 

Eowever  this  may  be,  the  courts  will  decide  justly.  Our  anxiety  i-  that 
they  may  decide  speedily. 

As  to  the  various  criticisms  which  you  mention,  permit  me  a  word.  In  all 
personal  matters,  Mr.  Stanford  was  perfectly  truthful  and  just.  Except  in 
matters  pertaining  to  the  division  of  the  earnings  and  bonds  of  the  Central 
Pacific  and  the  fact  that  its  afTairs  were  not  made  public,  I  have  never  heard 
his  railroad  career  seriously  criticized.  In  California,  he  had  a  very  wide  fol- 
lowing among  the  best  men,  men  who  liked  and  respected  him,  not  on  account 
of  his  wealth  and  railroad  connections,  but  rather  in  spite  of  them.  In  all  the 
railroad  war  through  which  this  state  is  passing,  no  responsible  person  ha.s 
uttered  a  slur  against  Mr.  Stanford  or  against  the  university. 

It  is  not  true  that  Mr.  Stanford  pretended  to  give  the  university  a  dollar 
more  than  he  gave.  He  gave  the  three  farms,  formerly  valued  at  $5,000,000,  in 
these  times  worth  much  less;  all  the  movable  stock  upon  them,  about  $1,000,000 
more;  the  university  buildings  costing  $1,250,000;  and  by  will  $2,500,000  in 
cash.  It  was  agreed  by  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Stanford  that  each  should  be  the  residuary 
legatee  of  the  other,  and  that  whichever  should  survive  should  devote  the  rest 
of  his  or  her  life  and  estate  to  the  university.  The  Stanford  estate  is  therefore 
the  university's  endowment.  Not  in  law  but  in  fact  the  estate  is  the  university. 
It  was-  Mr.  Stanford's  feeling,  and  I  was  fully  aware  of  it,  that  should  his  wife 
survive  him,  she  should  be  free  to  endow  the  university  and  to  control  it  as  he 
had  done.  No  one  has  ever  struggled  more  loyally  to  do  so  than  Mrs.  Stanford. 
Since  her  husband  died  we  have  not  received  a  dollar  of  his  money,  but  the 
university  has  gone  on  without  check  or  hindrance,  though  at  times  she  has 
been  forced  to  give  up  luxuries  and  to  limit  her  expenses  in  every  conceivable 
way.  As-  a  matter  of  fact,  she  has  each  year  given  me  a  personal  bond  for  all 
she  thinks  that  she  can  raise  from  the  farms  and  from  her  own  small  personal 
property.  Her  devotion  to  the  work  is  absolute  and  she  is  giving  her  life  to  it. 
When  she  loses,  she  will  die. 

The  lands  are  unsalable  only  because  the  deed  of  gift  prohibits  their  sale. 
In  Mr.  Stanford's  lifetime  they  were  conducted  as  parks.  When  they  came  into 
our  hands,  their  products  fell  short  by  $10,000  to  $20,000  per  month  of  meeting 
the  pay-rolls.  This  year  under  Mrs.  Stanford's  direction,  they  have  yielded 
upwards  of  $150,000  above  expenses.  The  sale  of  colts  is  a  source  of  revenue 
now  that  the  reputation  of  the  Palo  Alto  stud  is  made. 

No  cash  has  ever  been  set  aside  in  advance,  for  very  simple  reasons.  I  could 
not  ask  for  it.  Mr.  Stanford  was  not  expecting  sudden  death,  financial  panics, 
nor  an  attack  from  the  government.  He  paid  in  cash  all  salaries  and  all  bills, 
placed  no  limits  on  me,  and  on  his  sudden  death  left  no  debts  against  the  uni- 
versity. There  are  now  no  debts  left  against  his  estate,  which  is  appraised  at 
$17,000,000,  except  the  government  claim  which  acts  as  an  injunction  tying 
everything  up.  It  is  not  true  that  Mr.  Stanford  tried  to  "rear  a  personal 
monument  by  a  good  use  of  ill-gotten  money."  No  one  ever  gave  monev  in  a 
more  generous  spirit,  and  there  have  not  been  many  great  givers  who  placed  so 


JANE  LATHROP  STANFORD  165 

'few  restrictions  on  their  gifts.  Personal  vanity  does  not  give  without  restric- 
tions in  its  own  interest.  He  claimed  that  no  man  in  California  was  the  poorer 
for  his  wealth,  which  was  true.  It  never  occurred  to  him  that  it  was  "ill- 
gotten  "  or  needed  any  apology. 

I  know  better  than  any  one  else,  except  his  wife,  can,  how  genuine  Mr. 
Stanford's  interest  was.  He  treated  me,  and  through  me,  the  university,  with 
perfect  truthfulness  and  justice.  For  my  part  and  that  of  the  faculty,  we  have 
tried  to  make  the  fund  in  our  possession,  count  every  dollar  for  a  dollar  to  the 
best  advancement  of  higher  education.  % 

As  to  the  public  at  large,  in  time  they  will  judge  us  by  our  fruits,  if  we 
are  allowed  to  live  to  bear  fruitage. 

To  a  loyal  friend  of  Governor  Stanford,  Senator  Hoar  of  Massa- 
chusetts, I  wrote  this  on  June  20,  1894 : 

You  will  pardon  me  for  writing  to  you  to  express  my  very  great  pleasure 
and  that  of  Mrs.  Stanford  in  the  stand  you  have  taken  in  defence  of  Senator 
Stanford's  memory  and  in  the  effort  you  have  made  toward  the  protection  of 
the  university  from  the  evil  effects  of  prolonged  litigation  in  which  its  endow- 
ment would  be  at  stake. 

You  who  knew  Senator  Stanford  well  know  that  the  recent  attack  of  Mr. 
Geary  on  his  motives  was  without  foundation  in  fact.  The  feeling  of  revenge 
at  any  real  or  supposed  slight  on  the  part  of  the  legislature  in  connection  with 
the  State  University,  had  nothing  to  do  with  his  actions.  He  was  not  a  man 
to  cherish  that  kind  of  feelings.  The  sole  basis  that  accusation  had  was  this: 
Mr.  Stanford  acted  for  a  few  days  as  a  member  of  the  State  Board  of  Regents. 
He  was  very  much  surprised  to  find  that  this  board  ignored  the  recommenda- 
tions of  the  president  of  the  university,  and  in  general  were  disposed  to  treat 
the  university  chairs  as  personal  "  spoils."  This  led  Mr.  Stanford  to  doubt 
whether,  if  he  should  endow  a  university  for  California,  it  would  be  wise  to 
place  it  in  the  hands  of  a  political  board  of  regents.  These  conditions  in  the 
State  Board  have  now  changed  for  the  better.  Mr.  Stanford  always  spoke  most 
kindly  of  the  State  University.  He  frequently  consulted  with  its  professors  and 
it  was  a  great  pleasure  for  him  to  know  that  the  new  institution  has  in  every 
way  helped  the  old  one.  The  friendly  rivalry  has  been  most  salutary  to  both. 
Instead  of  450  college  students  in  one  school  as  in  1890,  there  are  now  1,700 
students  in  the  two,  besides  the  professional  classes. 

As  a  matter  of  fact,  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Stanford  founded  the  university  with 
the  sole  purpose  of  putting  their  fortune  to  the  best  use  of  their  country. 
I  know  Mr.  Stanford's  motives  in  this  regard  as  well  as  one  man  can  know  the 
motives  of  another,  and  I  know  that  no  feeling  of  revenge  and  no  selfish  feeling 
entered  into  these  motives. 

The  university  has  now  safely  passed  every  other  serious  difficulty.  Mrs. 
Stanford  has  no  other  purpose  in  life  than  that  of  carrying  out  every  detail  of 
her  husband's  purposes.  Her  devotion  has  shown  itself  in  maintaining  the  work 
of  the  university  unimpaired  during  this  period  of  hard  times,  while  the  estates 
are  in  probate,  and  therefore  not  available  for  university  purposes. 

It  would,  I  believe,  be  a  great  national  calamity  if  this  groat  fund  were 
lost  to  higher  education.  It  would  be  almost  as  great  a  calamity  if  it  were 
exposed  to  the  delay  and  loss  of  prolonged  litigation. 

I  assure  you  that  the  great  majority  of  the  self-respecting  people  of  Cali- 
fornia are  very  grateful  to  you  for  what  you  have  done  towards  the  protection 
of  the  university  endowment. 


1 66  TEE    POPULAR   SCIENCE   MONTHLY 

The  story  of  the  passing  of  the  great  suit  is  known  to  all  the  old 
students  of  the  university. 

It  was  brought  to  trial  in  San  Francisco  in  the  United  States  Dis- 
trict Court,  ami  the  university  side  of  the  question  had  the  strong  sup- 
port of  the  great  jurist,  John  Garber. 

The  decision  of  Judge  Ross  was  against  the  claim  of  the  govern- 
ment. It  was  appealed  and  came  before  Judges  Morrow,  Gilbert  and 
Hawley,  who  again  found  no  merit  in  the  government  contention.  It 
was  appealed  to  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States,  and  here  our 
case  seemed  hopeless.  The  Supreme  Court  moves  slowly,  and  our  life- 
blood  was  ebbing  fast.  It  takes  money  to  run  a  university,  and  our 
money  was  almost  gone.  To  delay  the  matter  was  to  destroy  us,  and 
no  one  but  ourselves  had  any  interest  in  pushing  along  the  decision. 

Finally  Mrs.  Stanford  went  to  Washington  to  appeal  to  President 
Cleveland.  She  told  him  our  story,  and  beseeched  him  to  use  his  in- 
fluence for  a  speedy  settlement.  Once  for  all,  let  us  know  the  future 
and  we  will  stand  by  it.  At  last,  President  Cleveland  saw  his  duty, 
and  through  his  influence  the  Stanford  case  was  placed  on  the  calendar 
of  the  United  States  Supreme  Court  for  speedy  trial.  Joseph  Choate, 
whose  name  every  Stanford  man  should  hold  in  grateful  memory, 
supplemented  the  work  of  John  Garber.  The  case  came  to  trial,  and 
by  a  unanimous  decision,  the  work  of  Justice  Harlan,  Stanford  Uni- 
versity was  again  free ! 

The  boys  celebrated  the  victory  as  Stanford  boys  can.  The  United 
States  Postoffice  on  the  campus,  a  wooden  shack  now  removed,  was 
painted  cardinal  red,  to  its  great  improvement  in  appearance,  and  once 
for  all  and  forever  the  future  of  the  university  was  assured. 

This  was  the  end  of  the  dark  days,  but  not  of  the  days  that  were 
difficult.  There  were  still  eight  millions  of  dollars  to  be  paid.  There 
was  still  the  uncertainty  as  to  whether  Mrs.  Stanford  could  survive 
to  pay  it,  and  the  estate  must  come  into  her  hands  before  she  could  give 
it  to  the  university.  She  made  many  attempts  to  facilitate  this  trans- 
fer. At  one  time,  we  have  the  pathetic  figure  of  the  good  woman  going 
to  the  Queen's  Jubilee  in  London,  with  all  her  own  possessions,  half  a 
million  of  dollars  worth  of  jewels,  in  a  suit  case  carried  in  her  hand. 
She  hoped  to  sell  these  to  advantage,  when  all  the  world  was  gathered 
in  London.  But  the  market  was  not  good,  and  three  fourths  of  them 
she  brought  back  to  California  again. 

And  this  seems  the  appropriate  place  for  the  story  of  the  jewel 
fund.  It  is  told  in  an  address  made  at  the  foundation  of  the  Library 
Building,  and  again  and  finally  in  a  resolution  of  the  Board  of  Trustees. 

On  May  15,  1905,  I  said: 

There  was  once  a  man — a  real  man.  vigorous,  wealthy  and  powerful.  He 
loved  his  wife  greatly,  for  she,  wise,  loyal,  devoted,  was  worthy  of  such  love. 
And  because  among  all  the  crystals  in  all  the  world  the  diamond  is  the  hardest 


JANE  LATHROP  STANFORD  167 

and  sparkles  the  brightest,  and  because  the  ruby  is  most  charming,  and  the 
emerald  gentlest — the  man  bought  gifts  of  these  all  for  his  wife. 

As  the  years  passed  a  great  sorrow  came  to  them;  their  only  child  died  in 
the  glory  of  his  youth.  In  their  loneliness  there  came  to  these  two  the  longing 
to  help  other  children,  to  use  their  wealth  and  power  to  aid  the  youth  of  future 
generations  to  better  and  stronger  life.  They  lived  in  California  and  they  loved 
California;  and  because  California  loved  them,  as  she  loves  all  her  children, 
this  man  said,  "  The  children  of  California  shall  be  my  children."  To  make  this 
true  in  very  fact  he  built  for  them  a  beautiful  "  Castle  in  Spain,"  with  cloisters 
and  towers,  and  "  red  tiled  roofs  against  the  azure  sky  " — for  "  skies  are  bluest 
in  the  heart  of  Spain."  This  castle,  the  Castle  of  Hope,  which  they  called  the 
university,  they  dedicated  to  all  who  might  enter  its  gates,  and  it  became  to 
them  the  fulfilment  of  the  dream  of  years — a  dream  of  love  and  hope,  of  faith 
in  God  and  good  will  toward  men. 

In  the  course  of  time  the  man  died.  The  power  he  bore  vanished;  his 
wealth  passed  to  other  hands;  the  work  he  had  begun  seemed  likely  to  fail.  But 
the  woman  rose  from  her  second  great  sorrow  and  set  herself  bravely  to  the 
task  of  completing  the  work  as  her  husband  had  planned  it.  "  The  children  of 
California  shall  be  my  children " — that  thought  once  spoken  could  never  be 
unsaid.  The  doors  of  the  castle  once  opened  could  never  be  closed.  To  those 
who  helped  her  in  these  days  she  said:  "We  may  lose  the  farms,  the  railways, 
the  bonds,  but  still  the  jewels  remain.  The  university  can  be  kept  alive  by  these 
till  the  skies  clear  and  the  money  which  was  destined  for  the  future  shall  come 
into  the  future's  hands.  The  university  shall  be  kept  open.  When  there  is  no 
other  way,  there  are  still  the  jewels." 

Because  there  always  remained  this  last  resource,  the  woman  never  knew 
defeat.  No  one  can  who  strives  for  no  selfish  end.  "  God's  errands  never  fail," 
and  her  errand  was  one  of  good  will  and  mercy.  And  when  the  days  were 
darkest,  the  time  came  when  it  seemed  the  jewels  must  be  sold.  Across  the  sea 
to  the  great  city  this  sorrowful,  heroic  woman  journeyed  alone  with  the  bag  of 
jewels  in  her  hand  that  she  might  sell  them  to  the  money  changers  that  flocked 
to  the  Queen's  Jubilee.  Sad,  pathetic  mission,  fruitless,  in  the  end,  but  full  of 
all  promise  for  the  future  of  the  university,  founded  in  faith  and  hope  and  love 
— the  trinity,  St.  Paul  says,  of  things  that  abide. 

But  the  jewels  were  not  sold,  save  only  a  few  of  them,  and  these  served  a 
useful  purpose  in  beginning  anew  the  work  of  building  the  university.  Better 
times  came.  The  money  of  the  estate,  freed  from  litigation,  became  available 
for  its  destined  use.  The  jewels  found  their  way  back  to  California  to  be  held 
in  reserve  against  another  time  of  need. 

A  noble  church  was  erected — one  of  the  noblest  in  the  land,  a  fitting  part 
of  the  beautiful  dream  castle,  the  university.  It  needed  to  make  it  perfect  the 
warmth  of  ornamentation,  the  glory  of  the  old  masters,  who  wrought  "  when  art 
was  still  religion."  To  this  end  the  jewels  were  dedicated.  It  was  an  appro- 
priate use,  but  the  need  again  passed.  Other  resources  were  found  to  adorn  the 
church — to  fill  its  windows  with  beautiful  pictures,  to  spread  upon  its  walls 
exquisite  mosaics  like  those  of  St.  Mark,  rivaling  even  the  precious  stones  of 
Venice. 

In  the  course  of  time  the  woman  died  also.  She  had  the  satisfaction  of 
seeing  the  buildings  of  the  university  completed,  the  cherished  plans  of  her 
husband,  to  which  she  had  devoted  anxious  years,  fully  carried  out.  Death 
came  to  her  in  a  foreign  land,  but  in  a  message  written  before  her  departure 
to  be  read  at  the  laying  of  the  corner-stone  of  the  great  library,  she  made  known 


x68  THE    POPULAR   SCIENCE   MONTHLY 

the  final  destiny  of  the  jewels.  She  directed  that  they  should  l><-  told  and  theii 
value  made  a  permanenl  endowment  of  the  library  of  1 1 1 *-  university. 

And  bo  the  jewels  have  .-it  Lead  come  to  be  the  enduring  possession  of  ill 
the  university — of  ;ill  who  may  tread  these  fields  <>r  enter  these  corridors,     in 

the  memory  of  tin*  earlier  students  lliey  stiind  for  the  (Quadrangle,  who-e  door-! 
they  kept  open,  and  for  the  adornment  of  the  church,  which  shall  be  to  all 
generations  of  students  a  source  of  joy  and  rest,  a  refining  and  uplifting  influ- 
ence. To  the  students  who  are  to  come  in  future  days  the  message  of  the  jewels 
will  be  read  in  the  books  they  study  within  these  walls  and  the  waves  of  their 
influence  spreading  out  shall  touch  the  uttermost  parts  of  the  earth. 

They  say  there  is  a  language  of  precious  stones,  but  I  know  that  they  speak 
in  diverse  tongues.  Some  diamonds  tell  strange  tales,  but  not  these  diamonds. 
In  the  language  of  the  jewels  of  Stanford  may  be  read  the  lessons  of  faith,  of 
hope  and  good  will.  They  tell  how  Stanford  was  founded  in  love  of  the  things 
that  abide. 

It  was  resolved  by  the  Board  of  Trustees  on  May  29,  1908,  as 

follows : 

Whereas,  it  was  a  cherished  plan  of  Mrs.  Jane  L.  Stanford  that  all  jewels 
left  by  her  should  be  sold  after  her  death,  and  that  the  proceeds  (estimated  by 
her  at  more  than  five  hundred  thousand  dollars)  should  be  invested  as  a  perma- 
nent fund,  of  which  the  income  should  be  used  exclusively  for  the  purchase  of 
books  for  the  Library  of  the  Leland  Stanford  Junior  University;  and 

Whereas,  the  pressing  financial  needs  of  the  university  compelled  her 
temporarily  to  forego  said  plan,  and  to  sell  many  of  said  jewels  in  her  lifetime 
in  order  to  raise  money  to  maintain  the  university;  and 

Whereas,  by  communication  delivered  to  this  board  at  its  meeting,  held 
February  22,  1905,  Mrs.  Stanford  declared: 

"  In  view  of  the  facts  and  of  my  interest  in  the  future  development  of  the 
University  Library,  I  now  request  the  trustees  to  establish  and  maintain  a 
library  fund,  and  upon  the  sale  of  said  jewels,  after  my  departure  from  this 
life,  I  desire  that  the  proceeds  therefrom  be  paid  into  such  fund  and  be  pre- 
served intact,  and  invested  in  bonds  or  real  estate  as  a  part  of  the  capital  of 
the  endowment,  and  that  the  income  therefrom  be  used  exclusively  for  the 
purchase  of  books  and  other  publications.  I  desire  that  the  fund  be  known  and 
designated  as  the  "  Jewel  Fund."  I  have  created  and  selected  a  Library  Com- 
mittee of  the  Board  of  Trustees,  under  supervision  of  which  all  such  purchases 
should  be  made." 

Now,  therefore,  in  order  to  carry  out  said  plan  of  Mrs.  Stanford  and  to 
establish  and  maintain  an  adequate  library  fund,  and  to  perform  the  promise 
made  by  this  board  to  her,  it  is 

Resolved,  that  a  fund  of  five  hundred  thousand  dollars,  to  be  known  and 
designated  as  the  "Jewel  Fund"  is  hereby  created  and  established,  which  fund 
shall  be  preserved  intact,  and  shall  be  separately  invested  and  kept  invested  in 
bonds  or  real  estate  by  the  Board  of  Trustees,  and  the  income  of  said  fund  shall 
be  used  exclusively  in  the  purchase  of  books  and  other  publications  for  the 
Library  of  the  Leland  Stanford  Junior  University,  under  the  supervision  and 
direction  of  the  Library  Committee  of  this  Board  of  Trustees. 

It  was  in  these  dark  days  that  I  was  asked  by  President  Cleveland 
through  Mr.  Charles  S.  Hamlin,  to  go  to  Bering  Sea  to  help  settle  the 
fur  seal  disputes. 

Before  I  started,  in  1896,  Mrs.  Stanford  said :  "  Xow  that  our  af- 


JANE  LATHROP  STANFORD  169 

fairs  are  looking  so  much  better,  do  you  not  think  that  I  might  afford 
to  bring  back  my  housekeeper  ?"  Her  servants  then  were  her  secretary, 
her  Chinese  cook,  and  an  old  man,  a  servant  of  other  days,  who  served 
as  butler,  without  salary. 

It  was  in  these  days,  too,  that  Mrs.  Stanford,  going  to  Washington 
to  settle  up  the  household  affairs  of  the  mansion  occupied  while  Mr. 
Stanford  was  senator,  took  four  hundred  dollars  with  her,  lived  in  the 
private  car  owned  by  the  Governor,  attended  to  the  packing  of  her 
goods,  and  the  rental  of  her  house  to  a  senator  from  New  York,  and 
brought  back  $340  of  the  amount,  which  she  turned  over  to  me,  to  be 
used  for  the  university.  I  have  given  this  and  other  details  private 
and  personal,  but  full  of  meaning  as  showing  her  devotion  to  the  uni- 
versity, and  her  utter  unselfishness  in  carrying  out  the  plans  made  by 
herself  and  her  husband  for  the  welfare  of  the  men  and  women  of  the 
coming  generations  of  California  and  of  the  world.  "While  matters  in- 
side the  faculty  and  the  details  of  instruction  were  left  to  those  sup- 
posed to  be  experts  in  these  lines,  for  this  was  her  husband's  wish,  she 
had  always  before  her  his  purposes.  "  What  would  Mr.  Stanford  do 
under  these  conditions?"  was  always  her  first  question;  and  in  almost 
every  instance  this  question  led  to  a  wise  decision. 

To  outside  suggestions  as  to  this  or  that,  she  used  to  reply :  "  I  will 
never  concern  myself  with  the  religion,  the  politics  or  the  love  affairs 
of  any  professor  in  Stanford  University."  And  this  resolution  she 
religiously  kept. 

With  the  passing  of  the  government  suit,  conditions  looked  brighter. 
The  payment  of  the  eight  millions  went  on  very  slowly,  because  the 
railway  holdings  could  not  be  broken  and  must  be  sold  as  a  whole  if  at 
all.  The  taxes  on  properties  yielding  no  income  became  an  intolerable 
burden.  Besides,  it  was  apparent  that  the  original  enabling  act  under 
which  the  Board  of  Trustees  was  organized  contained  grave  defects, 
which  might  invalidate  the  actions  of  this  Board.  For  this  reason, 
mainly,  the  Board  of  Trustees  existed  in  name  only,  Mrs.  Stanford 
being  in  fact  the  sole  trustee. 

In  1899  the  railroad  holdings  were  sold,  to  good  advantage,  thanks 
to  the  good  offices  of  a  well-known  German  banker  whose  name  I  am 
glad  to  speak,  James  Speyer,  and  the  estate  at  once  passed  out  of  debt. 
Finally,  piece  by  piece,  it  passed  into  Mrs.  Stanford's  hands,  and  each 
piece  was  at  once  deeded  to  the  Board  of  Trustees.  The  Board  of 
Trustees  was  legalized  by  a  change  in  the  State  Constitution.  The 
university  was  by  the  same  means  relieved  of  part  of  the  burden  of  its 
taxes.  At  the  earliest  possible  moment,  Mrs.  Stanford  again  and  in 
full  transferred  the  whole  estate  to  the  board,  reserving  for  herself  a 
relatively  small  sum  "to  play  with"  as  she  said,  but  in  fact  to  give  her 
occupation  and  means  to  carry  out  in  her  own  way  other  plans  of 
strengthening  the  university  and  of  helping  mankind.     The  Board  of 


i7o  THE  POPULAR  .SCIENCE  MONTHLY 

Trustees  was  then  organized  u  a  working  body.  lire.  Stanford  became 
its  president,  and   this  history  ;  er  into  the  bright  daye  of  the 

dawn  of  the  twentieth  century. 

Mrs.  Stanford  then  left  the  university  for  a  trip  around  the  world 
by  way  of  Australia  and  Ceylon.  This  was  not  that  she  wanted  to  see 
the  world,  or  to  be  absent  from  her  beloved  Palo  Alto,  but  that  she 
wished  to  give  to  the  Board  of  Trustees  absolute  freedom  in  taking  up 
their  great  responsibilities.  She  wished  them  to  handle  the  accumu- 
lated funds  on  their  own  initiative,  without  suggestion  from  herself. 

The  rest  of  the  story  can  be  told  by  others,  for  it  is  an  open  record. 
The  whole  may  be  summed  up  in  these  words  of  Mrs.  Stanford  in  a 
letter  written  to  me  September  3,  1898: 

Every  dollar  I  can  rightfully  call  mine  is  sacredly  laid  on  the  altar  of  my 
love  for  the  university,  and  thus  it  ever  shall  be. 

That  all  this  may  seem  more  real,  I  venture  to  quote  a  few  para- 
graphs from  personal  letters  of  Mrs.  Stanford  written  in  the  dark  days 
from  1893  to  1899. 

On  November  24,  1895,  Mrs.  Stanford  wrote  from  the  university: 

It  has  been  my  policy  to  say  as  little  about  my  financial  affairs  to  the 
outside  world  as  possible,  but  I  feel  sure  that  I  am  doing  myself  and  our  blessed 
work  injustice  by  allowing  the  impression  among  all  classes  to  feel  certain 
there  is  plenty  of  money,  at  my  command,  the  future  is  assured,  the  battle 
fought  and  won.  ...  I  only  ask  righteous  justice.  I  ask  not  for  myself,  but 
that  I  may  be  able  to  discharge  my  duty  and  loyalty  to  the  one  who  trusted  me, 
and  loved  me,  and  loves  me  still.  I  am  so  poor  myself  that  I  can  not  this  year 
give  to  any  charity;  not  even  do  1  give  this  festive  season  to  any  of  my  family. 
I  do  not  tell  you  this,  kind  friend,  in  a  complaining  way,  for  when  one  has 
pleasant  surroundings,  all  we  want  to  eat  and  wear,  added  to  this  have  those  in 
their  lives  we  can  count  on  as  friends,  it  would  be  sinful  to  complain.  I  repeat 
it  only  that  you  my  friend  may  know,  I  ask  only  justice,  to  the  dear  ones  gone 
from  earth  life  and  the  living  one  left. 

I  am  willing  you  should  speak  plainly  to  any  one  who  may  question  as  to 
the  university  or  myself.  I  have  many  devoted  and  true  loyal  friends  in  Wash- 
ington, and  I  am  sure  did  they  know  I  was  kept  from  my  rights,  they  would 
speak  their  sentiments  openly,  and  when  it  was  known  a  public  sentiment  was 
in  my  favor  and  against  their  unfairness,  it  would  cause  a  different  course  to 
be  pursued  toward  me.  I  shall  henceforth  speak  plainly,  and  I  desire  you  to 
do  so.  You  will  meet  our  good  President,  Mr.  Cleveland,  my  good  and  true 
friend  Secretary  Carlisle,  Mr.  John  Foster  and  many  others,  and  you  .  .  .  can 
do  our  blessed  work  good  and  God  will  bless  the  act,  and  bring  fruit  to  bear 
from  the  seeds  sown.  I  have  kept  myself  and  my  affairs  in  the  background. 
It  has  been  an  inspiration  from  the  source  from  which  all  good  comes,  from  my 
Father  God — I  trust  Him  to  lead  me  all  along  the  rest  of  the  journey  of  life. 
He  has  led  me  thua  far  through  the  deep  waters,  and  joy  will  come,  for  He 
never  deserts  the  widow,  the  childless,  the  orphan.  I  have  His  promise  "blessed 
are  those  who  mourn,  for  they  shall  be  comforted." 

On  the  same  day  she  said : 

Everything  is  going  on  smoothly  as  far  as  I  know  at  the  university.     The 


JANE  LATHROP  STANFORD  171 

boys  are  wild  over  the  game  to  be  played.     I  hope  they  will  win  because  my 
boys  will  be  happy  if  they  win. 

On  July  20,  1896,  she  "wrote  to  a  candidate  for  a  professorship : 

The  university  still  is  restricted  and  limited  in  its  ambitions  and  its  aims, 
because  of  my  inability  to  increase  the  number  of  students  or  the  number  of 
professors.  The  gift  of  $2,500,000  in  bonds  which  I  have  by  the  grace  of  God 
been  enabled  to  give  to  the  trustees  for  the  present  and  future  maintenance  of 
the  university  brings  in  a  monthly  income  of  $10,000,  while  the  actual  expenses 
for  the  faculty  and  the  president  and  the  necessary  matters  bring  the  sum  total 
of  expenses  per  month  to  $19,000.  This  $9,000  I  am  obliged  to  furnish  myself, 
through  the  strictest  economy  and  the  husbanding  of  resources;  consequently 
I  am  not  increasing  expenses  but  on  the  contrary  shall  retrench  in  the  future. 

On  December  28,  1895,  she  said: 

I  must  confess  to  a  feeling  of  great  pride  in  our  entire  body  of  students, 
both  male  and  female,  and  I  think  we  are  all  in  a  way  under  obligations  to 
them  for  their  uniformly  good  conduct,  and  a  desire,  as  my  dear  husband  once 
expressed  it,  to  be  ladies  and  gentlemen. 

On  July  29,  1895,  she  wrote: 

I  send  a  precious  letter  from  Mr.  Andrew  White  for  you  to  read.  I  read  it 
with  a  heart  running  over  with  various  emotions.  Mr.  Stanford  esteemed  him 
so  highly  I  could  not  but  feel  like  asking  God  to  let  my  loved  ones  in  heaven 
know  the  contents  of  this  letter.  I  prize  this  letter  beyond  my  ability  to 
express.  It  lifted  my  soul  from  its  heaviness.  My  heart  is  one  unceasing 
prayer  to  the  Allwise,  All  Merciful  one,  that  all  will  be  well  for  the  future  of 
the  good  work  under  your  care.  When  the  end  of  our  troubles  is  over,  all 
(these  letters)  will  be  placed  in  your  hands  for  future  reading  by  our  students, 
a  story  for  them  when  I  have  passed  into  peace. 

Soon  after,  she  wrote : 

I  return  herewith  Mr.  Choate's  kind  letter.  God  bless  him,  for  he  was  a 
friend  indeed. 

After  the  decision  of  Judge  Boss  (July  6,  1895),  she  wrote: 

I  dare  not  let  my  soul  rejoice  over  the  future.  It  must  be  more  sure  than 
it  is  now.  I  hope  and  pray  that  the  final  decision  will  be  as  sure  as  the  first. 
It  means  more  to  me  than  you  or  the  world  have  dreamed.  It  means  an  unsul- 
lied, untarnished  name  as  a  blessed  heritage  to  the  university.  My  husband 
often  used  to  say:  "A  good  name  is  better  than  riches."  God  can  not  but  be 
touched  by  my  constant  pleading,  and  this  first  decision  by  Judge  Ross  makes 
me  humble  that  I  so  unworthy  should  have  received  the  smallest  attention. 

From  Paris,  August  30,  1897,  she  wrote : 

I  wish  the  rest  of  my  responsibilities  caused  me  as  little  care  as  does  the 
internal  working  of  the  good  work.  I  am  only  anxious  to  furnish  you  the  funds 
to  pay  the  needs  required.  I  could  live  on  bread  and  water  to  do  this,  my  part, 
and  would  feel  that  God  and  my  loved  ones  in  the  life  beyond  this  smiled  on  the 
efforts  to  ensure  the  future  of  my  dear  husband's  work  to  better  humanity. 

Again,  in  1897,  she  writes  to  her  trusted  solicitor,  Russell  Wilson: 
I  stand  almost  alone  in  this  blessed  work  left  to  my  care,  and  I  want  and 

302382 


i72  THE  POPl  LAB  8CIENCE  MONTHLY 

11,. .I  the  president's  support  and  his  helpfulness  in  this  work  as  far  as  he  can 
support   me,    There  are  plenty  who  are  interested  in  the  affairs  of  the  i 

w  ii  ii  ,  i .11 1  few  in  the  university. 

In  July,  1898,  she  said  : 

If  I  am  able  to  keep  the  university  in  the  condition  it  is  now,  I  shall  be 
more  than  thankful.  $15,000  a  month  is  a  great  expenditure,  and  exhaust 
ingenuity  and  resources  to  such  an  extent  thai  had  I  nol  the  university  so  close 
to  my  heart  I  would  relieve  myself  of  this  enormous  burden  and  take  re.it  and 
recreation  for  the  next  year.  But  I  prefer  to  see  the  good  work  going  on  in 
its  present  condition,  and  1  am  not  promising  myself  anything  further  for  the 
future  until  the  skies  are  brighter  than  they  are  now. 

On  December  14,  1900,  she  repeats: 

I  could  lay  down  my  life  for  the  university.  Not  for  any  pride  in  its 
perpetuating  the  names  of  our  dear  son  and  ourselves,  its  founders,  but  for 
the  sincere  hope  I  cherish  in  its  sending  forth  to  the  world  grand  men  and 
women  who  will  aid  in  developing  the  best  there  is  to  be  found  in  human  nature. 

These  extracts,  largely  from  business  letters,  will  show  better  than 
any  words  of  mine  her  spirit  and  her  faith.  These  must  justify  and 
make  live  the  words  I  used  on  February  28,  1905,  the  date  of  Mrs. 
Stanford's  sudden  death  in  Honolulu. 

The  sudden  death  of  Mrs.  Stanford  has  come  as  a  great  shock  to  all  of  us. 
She  has  been  so  brave  and  strong  that  we  hoped  for  her  return  well  rested,  and 
that  her  last  look  on  earth  might  be  on  her  beloved  Palo  Alto.  But  it  was  a 
joy  to  her  to  have  been  spared  so  long;  to  have  lived  to  see  the  work  of  her 
husband's  life  and  hers  firmly  and  fully  established. 

Hers  has  been  a  life  of  the  most  perfect  devotion  both  to  her  own  and  her 
husband's  ideals.  If  in  the  years  we  knew  her  she  ever  had  a  selfish  feeling,  no 
one  ever  detected  it.  All  her  thoughts  were  of  the  university  and  of  the  way 
to  make  it  effective  for  wisdom  and  righteousness. 

No  one  outside  of  the  university  can  understand  the  difficulties  in  her  way 
in  the  final  establishment  of  the  university,  and  her  patient  deeds  of  self- 
sacrifice  can  be  known  only  to  those  who  saw  them  from  day  to  day.  Some  day 
the  world  may  understand  a  part  of  this.  It  will  then  know  her  for  the  wisest, 
as  well  as  the  most  generous,  friend  of  learning  in  our  time.  It  will  know  her 
as  the  most  loyal  and  most  devoted  of  wives.  What  she  did  was  always  the 
best  she  could  do.  Wise,  devoted,  steadfast,  prudent,  patient  and  just — every 
good  word  we  can  use  was  hers  by  right.  The  men  and  women  of  the  university 
feel  the  loss  not  alone  of  the  most  generous  of  helpers,  but  of  the  nearest  of 
friends. 

To  these  words  spoken  when  the  shock  of  the  death  of  the  mother 
of  the  university  first  came  to  her  children,  I  added  later  a  single 
thought  as  to  Mrs.  Stanford's  conception  of  the  future  development  of 
the  university. 

It  should  be  above  all  other  things,  sound  and  good,  using  its  forces  not 
for  mental  development  alone,  but  for  physical,  moral  and  spiritual  growth  and 
strength.  It  should  make  not  only  scholars,  but  men  and  women,  alert,  fearless, 
wise.  God  fearing,  skilled  in  "team  work"  and  eager  to  '"get  into  the  game." 
whatever  the  struggle  into  which  they  may  be  thrown.     To  this  end  she  would 


JANE  LATHROP  STANFORD  173 

have  the  university  not  large  but  choice.  There  should  be  no  more  students 
than  could  be  well  taken  care  of,  no  more  departments  than  could  be  placed  in 
master  hands,  no  teachers  to  whom  the  students  could  not  look  up  as  to  men 
whose  work  and  life  should  be  an  inspiration  to  them.  The  buildings  should 
be  beautiful,  for  to  see  beautiful  things  in  a  land  of  beauty  is  one  of  the  greatest 
elements  in  the  refinement  of  clean  men  and  women.  Great  libraries  and  great 
collections  the  university  should  have,  but  libraries  and  collections  should  be 
chosen  for  their  fitness  in  the  training  of  men.  And  with  all  the  activities  of 
athletics,  of  scholarly  research,  of  the  applications  of  science  to  engineering,  the 
spirit  of  "  self-devotion  and  of  self-restraint,"  by  which  lives  have  been  "  made 
beautiful  and  sweet "  through  all  the  centuries  should  rise  above  all  else, 
dominating  the  lower  aspirations  and  activities  as  the  great  church  towers 
above  the  red  tiles  of  the  lower  buildings.  But  for  all  this,  the  Church  should 
exist  for  men — for  the  actual  men  who  enter  its  actual  doors — not  men  for  the 
Church.  For  this  reason,  any  special  alliance  with  any  of  the  historic  churches 
of  Christendom  is  forever  forbidden. 

We  do  not  yet  see  all  these  things.  Rome  was  not  built  in  a  day,  nor 
Stanford  in  a  century.  But  as  the  old  pioneers  returning  now  behold  in  solid 
stone  the  dream-castles  of  their  college  days,  so  shall  you,  Stanford  men  and 
women,  find  here  as  you  come  back  to  future  reunions,  the  university  of  your 
dreams,  the  university  of  great  libraries  and  noble  teachers,  the  university  of 
the  perfect  democracy  of  literature  and  science,  "  of  self-devotion  and  of  self- 
restraint,"  the  university  in  which  earnest  men  and  women  find  the  best  possible 
preparation  for  work  in  life,  the  university  which  sends  out  men  who  will  make 
the  future  of  the  republic  worthy  of  the  glories  of  its  past,  the  university  of 
the  plans  and  hopes  of  Leland  Stanford,  the  university  of  the  faith  and  work 
and  prayer  of  Jane  Lathrop  Stanford. 


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